Family generational conflict. Who can't relate?

There is always a gap between famial generations that leads to misunderstanding. In STRAWBERRY we juxtapose this conflict along with the immigrant experience, highliting the following themes: Cultural integration and conservation of heritage.

Strawberry is a coming of age story of characters who are trying to find who they are and where their culture heritage falls within their identity as second and first genertaion immigrants.

Marta is put in a position where she serves as a mediator between the older generation who grew up in their home country and moved to a new one (her mother, aunt and uncle), against a newer generation already accustomed to the new country's ways (her younger cousins, Adela and Luis Diego).

This story was born in order to help bridge that gap between immigrant generations and come to an understanding and acceptance of cultural melding, finding what we try to preserve from our heritage, and finding ones own identity and path as a second generation and beyond immigrant.

Growing up in Honduras, I watched many films from the USA and all over the world, with minimal content from my home country and nearby countries. As I got older and came to the USA to pursue a career in filmmaking, I realized that I had an opportunity to tell the stories of people from Honduras and all of Central America. While I’m still here in the US making films, I want to focus on the stories of immigrants from this region. That’s why I wrote Strawberry. My main characters, Marta and Adela, are an amalgamation of many people I have met. Marta represents anyone that has come to this country searching for a better life, and Adela represents the children of immigrants that are born in this country. It can be difficult for immigrant families to understand each other, especially as the younger generation can more easily assimilate into a new culture. That’s why I wanted Marta to only be a year older than Adela. While Marta is a first generation immigrant, and Adela a second generation, I want Marta to act as a bridge, helping both generations of the family understand each other.

Marta 
A 16 year old hispanic girl born in Honduras. Migrated to the USA at age 14 with her mother to live with her aunt, Alicia, and her family. Marta is quiet, perceptive, and a hard worker. Having arrived with no knowledge of english, Marta was pushed back a couple of years in school to adjust to the language. She is focused on herself and her family but wishes to have more freedom like kids her age and cousin Adela.

Adela
A 14 going on 15 year old hispanic girl. Child of immigrant parents but born in America. More comfortable with American culture than hispanic culture. Speaks little to no Spanish. She recognises the work and sacrifice of her parents but is more interested in her friends.

Florencia
Florencia is a Honduran immigrant in her early 40's. She came to the USA and moved in with her sister and her family. She works two jobs under the table as an undocumented immigrant. Flor is a loving single mother to Marta. She cares about and supports her family. Loves her daughter and her Honduran roots. Thinks her niece has lost touch with her heritage.

As the director and writer of the film, I wanted the film to look like what me and my sister experienced when we were turning 15 and going to Quinceañera parties. This was late 2000's and Early 2010's, when smart phones were just beginning to become popular, but not everyone had one. Blockbuster Rental Stores were still around, there weren't any streaming services, and barely any social media existed other than MySpace and Facebook.

Here are some films that capture this feeling and more importantly the look that we want to incorporate.

First and foremost we want to share this immgrant story. Being a student MFA thesis film, this is a low budget short film. Our goal is to raise $10,000 through Seed&Spark in order to make this film. Production will take place over 4 days within the Central Arkansas Area. We plan on using what we gain from this campaign on all stages of production if possible: pre-production, production, and post-production. 

Right now we are in Pre-production. This means that we are finishig the script, locking in locations and casting our talent. We have already secured our head crew positions and our leading role of Marta. Since this is a student film, we also have the advantage of using school equipment, which relieves a great load from our budget. 

Once the film is complete our plan is to launch a festival run around the US and abroad, and to possibly find distribution. We plan on submittung our film to various festivals that are targeted toward latino and immigrant communities. 

When it comes to COVID-19. We are very aware of the ongoing risks that we might face during production. Our team has experience producing films in this uncertain times safely and effectively. We will be monitoring developments and guidelines in relation to the virus and will adjust our production accordingly as information continues to become available.

Where is your contribution going? How is your support aiding us?
 To further explain how your contribution will support our film, here is a breakdown of our budget.  

Budget Breakdown 

• Production Design: Quinceanera party decorations, house decorations and prop-food (like tamales and empanadas) 
• Adela's Quinceañera dress plus all the main cast costumes. 
  Warm food, snacks and coffee to feed out cast and crew and keep our energy levels high to make the best of every day! 
• Payment for our cast and crew department heads.
• Locations! We've already aquired some free locations such as the strawberry field, but we still need our restaurant, family home, and quinceañera party venue. 
  Van to transport film equipment. 

In order to make this story possible, we need YOU! 

FOLLOW US!
Follow our campaign! It's 100% FREE! Seed&Spark rewards us for building our audience. If you follow us, we will be able to unlock perks, services, and festival fee waivers.

CONTRIBUTE AND PLEDGE
You can make a contribution to our film by making a pledge. We need 80% of our crowdfunding goal to keep our funds. You can choose an incentive or make a pledge to a specific wishlist item. You can choose any pledge and incentive amount that fits your budget. No pledge is too small! 

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Join our team and be a part of this project. Check out our incentives and figure out how you can help and what you can get from it. 

Please FOLLOW & SHARE so you can help us fulfill our goal and make this film possible! 

Feel free to copy and paste the following messages to make it easier on your sharing post.

Help Honduran filmmaker Nathaly Moreno and her team in the making of her MFA Thesis Film by supporting her immigrant story @strawberryfilm2022 ! Join them on @seedandspark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/strawberry-1

I'm so excited to see @strawberryfilm2022, an MFA Thesis film directed by Nathaly Moreno, being made in Central Arkansas, this fall! Join them on @seedandspark:https://seedandspark.com/fund/strawberry-1

THANK YOU! For your time, your follow, your contribution, and for being a part of this project! We trully appreciate all the help we can get. 

Best Regards, 

Nathaly Moreno
Director/Writer